April 28, 2026 — SCOTUS AM (Birthday Episode / Last Argument of the Season)

Falun Gong members alleged that Cisco helped the Chinese government build the "Golden Shield" — a surveillance system used to identify, track, and capture Falun Gong practitioners who were then subjected to torture. Two sets of plaintiffs, two different legal theories. American citizen Charles Lee sued under the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which lets anyone sue for being subjected to torture on behalf of a foreign government. The question for his case: can you sue someone for *aiding and abetting* torture under the TVPA when that person didn't actually torture anyone? Aiding and abetting isn't explicitly in the statute. One of three questions. The group of non-US-citizen plaintiffs sued under the Alien Tort Statute — a law from 1789 that sat largely unused for 170 years before getting dusted off in the 1980s. Text: federal courts have jurisdiction over aliens' suits for torts "in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." Courts have never fully settled whether this is purely jurisdictional (you need a separate cause of action) or whether it creates its own cause of action. Bryan: a 1975 case said "we have no idea why this is here." That confusion was still live. The ATS question here: can aiding-and-abetting claims be brought under it (same question as with the TVPA), and what *mens rea* is required? Did Cisco just have to know the Chinese government was using the Golden Shield to harm people (knowledge), or did Cisco have to want the harm to happen (purpose)? Corporate liability under ATS had already been narrowed through Jesner v. Arab Bank (foreign corporations outside the US) and Nestle v. Doe (conduct entirely overseas). This case was about a US company providing infrastructure with some domestic connection. Bryan's read: the corporate world filed heavy amicus briefs because there's a lot of money riding on how broadly ATS applies to American companies doing business with foreign governments. He didn't expect the narrowing trend to reverse, but a law written in 1789 and sitting on the books was hard to just ignore. Birthday episode. Last big argument of the season.